Yahoo!/Microsoft Execs Meet For Round Two 84
psychosmyth writes "Microsoft's deal to Yahoo! is apparently back on the table. Yahoo execs met again with Microsoft early this past week to re-discuss the deal that fell through earlier. 'The gathering, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, gave Microsoft its first chance to sell Yahoo on the rationale for the proposed marriage since the software maker unveiled its plans six weeks ago. Since then, Yang has been exploring different ways to ward off Microsoft. The alternatives have included possible alliances with Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc., News Corp.'s MySpace.com and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.' Microsoft is apparently still keeping all of its options open; a hostile take-over is not out of the question."
A fond farewell... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A fond farewell... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think it's likely that yahoo will disappear, after all, it has a lot of customers. I don't think this will cure microsofts internet woes. They dropped that ball a long time ago, and yahoo have shown that they are no google. Buying them won't change much for either company.
Whatever happens, a lot of shareholders will become richer.
Re:What would MS do with FoxyTunes? (Score:-1, Insightful)
Re:Flickr (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:A fond farewell... (Score:4, Insightful)
Forget Yahoo, Microsoft is screwing up! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yahoo will always be second or third place to Google. Microsoft made their attempt with MSN. It's crap and never caught on. Yahoo and all of its things, while many are still vibrant, are generally too spammy to be useful any longer. (I can't tell you how many groups I had joined only to become flooded with unending spam even after leaving those groups!)
I simply cannot imagine with Microsoft's history of misunderstanding the internet (primarily they somehow don't get that they can't control or guide the internet in any successful way) and Yahoo's failure to maintain its dominance or communities that they can somehow put something together that will compete with Google.
Microsoft is just wasting money.
Re:What would MS do with FoxyTunes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Before the merger:
Joe R. Hacker of the Many Eyes: Firefox is crippled under Vista, also under XP with mandatory update KB66642 installed.
Fred Quux of the Firefox Bug Dispatchers: Does this occur in safe mode? If it does not, can you pinpoint the add-on that is causing the crippling?
JRH: Thanks. The crippling is in FoxyTunes.
FQ: I really can't do anything about that. You have to get the FoxyTunes maintainers to fix it.
JRH: That's okay, it's Yahoo!. I'll file a bug.
Y!: After some debugging, it looks like both Vista and KB66642 have an API bug that leads to a buffer overflow in our extension. We're fixing this and making some fuss about it with MS, because it may break some other extension and we would hate that.
After the merger:
JRH: Firefox is crippled under Vista, also under XP with mandatory update KB66642 installed.
FQ: Does this occur in safe mode? If it does not, can you pinpoint the add-on that is causing the crippling?
JRH: Thanks. The crippling is in FoxyTunes.
FQ: I really can't do anything about that. You have to get the FoxyTunes maintainers to fix it.
JRH: That's okay, it's Microsoft. I'll file a... Oh, wait...
<GP_level_paranoia>
MS: We're aware of this problem but we can't fix it. It is due to a flaw in the Firefox platform.
JRH: Are you kidding me? FoxyTunes worked fine when Yahoo! was making it!
MS: Maybe. However, the latest release of FoxyTunes has to interface with the TPM and DRM/DBD layers of XP and Vista, and unfortunately it triggers a buffer overflow in the pitiful Firefox add-on APIs. We can't fix it.
JRH: You know what? I'm having an RMS/ESR moment. Please stay in line as I reach for my katana and my Uzi.
MS: Just for the record, ExplorerTunes under IE8 is outstanding. It has so many more features, it's pretty, and it just works!
JRH: Screw you. I'm forking FoxyTunes.
MS: Please do that. Our patent lawyers are hungry.
</GP_level_paranoia>
Re:Forget Yahoo, Microsoft is screwing up! (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyway, that's besides the point. MS is aware of yahoo's issues (did you stop to read about the acquisition offer a bit before you posted your rant?). MS needs Yahoo's users and its brands to be able to at least get a foot in the door.